This week's look back at nostalgia takes us back 16 years to one of the WWE's annual PPV's, Survivor Series 1992. Survivor Series 1992 was the fifth installment of the annual Thanksgiving PPV and was highlighted by one of the first one on one meetings between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels for the WWF World Heavyweight Title. The show was held on November 25, 1992 from the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio. Attendance was strong at 17,500 and the buy rate was 1.4. This was down considerably from the 1991 buy rate of 2.2 but in line with the SummerSlam 1992 buy rate of 1.5. It is interesting to note that the Richfield Coliseum hosted Survivor Series 1987 and 1988, however 1992 would be the last time that the Richfield Coliseum would host the Survivor Series.

Your broadcast team is Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan.

1. The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu) defeated Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware teaming together as High Energy in 7:38. High Energy get my vote for the worst ring outfits of all time. Headshrinkers worked over Ware most of the match until Owen made the hot tag. Samu splashed Hart off the top rope for the pinfall victory. A standard opening match. * ¼

2. In a "Nightstick on a Pole" match, Nailz (Kevin Kelly, Kevin Wacholz) lost to Big Bossman in 5:43. Didn't WCW just do this match in October at Halloween Havoc? Story of the feud was Nailz was a former convict seeking revenge against the former prison guard Bossman. During the summer long feud, Nailz had put Bossman out of action with an injury and this was to be the blowoff to the feud as the Bossman returned to seek his revenge against Nailz. Match was mostly punching and kicking with a couple of rest holds. Bossman finally got the nightstick down from the pole but Nailz got it away and used it on the Bossman. Bossman hit the slam out of nowhere for the pin. * ½

3. Tatanka pinned Rick Martel in 11:04. They were feuding because Martel stole Tatanka's Indian feathers. Tatanka was the Indian replacement for Chief Jay Strongbow and was being pushed as having never been defeated in the WWF. The action was slow but Martel carried it to a passable match. Finish came when Tatanka gave Martel a fall away slam and pinned him to regain his feathers.

4. Randy Savage and Curt Hennig defeated Ric Flair and Razor Ramon by dq in 16:09. This match was one of the more eagerly anticipated match ups of the evening. Ramon had just come to the WWF from WCW in August of 1992 and was cast with Flair to be viewed as a main event talent. Flair and Savage had been feuding throughout 1992, in fact their feud won feud of the year in the PW Torch annual awards. Perfect had been acting as a special advisor to Flair so his participation in the match was a surprise. Perfect and Ramon started in the ring together. Although it was never acknowledged by McMahon or Heenan, it was interesting to see the former AWA World Tag Team champions in the ring together again. Crowd had great heat and Flair was a bump machine for Savage and Perfect. Finish came when Flair hit the ref, knocking him down and outside the ring. Perfect hit a "Perfect Plex" on both Ramon and Flair for visual pinfalls but no ref to count. Ref finally recovered and disqualified Ramon and Flair. Perfect destroyed Flair and Ramon with a chair to clear the ring. Good match that was cheapened by the dq finish. ** ½

5. Yokozuna defeated Virgil in 3:34. I believe this was Yokozuna's PPV debut for the WWF. Mr. Fuji was Yokozuna's manager. This was basically a squash to get Yokozuna over as a monster heel. *

6. This was a tag team elimination match. The Nasty Boys teamed with Earthquake and Typhoon to defeat The Beverly Brothers and Money Inc in 15:50. The Nasty Boys were the only surviving tag team. This was the only match on the card that even resembled the original survivor series concept the PPV was built around. Earthquake pinned Beau Beverly, Irwin R. Schyster pinned Typhoon and Jerry Sags pinned Schyster. * ½

7. The Undertaker defeated Kamala in a “Casket Match” in 5:27. Taker and Kamala had been feuding all summer and this next match was meant to be the blowoff to their feud. Undertaker defeated Kamala at SummerSlam by DQ and at Survivor Series they would be having a “Casket Match." I believe this was the first ever "Casket Match" in the WWF. Thankfully, this match was kept short and they gave more time to the main event. Kamala had excellent facial expressions acting scared of the casket and the urn. Undertaker hit Kamala with the urn for the pinfall and threw Kamala into the casket. ½ *

8. In a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Title, Bret Hart defeated Shawn Michaels to retain the title in 26:40. Shawn had just defeated the British Bulldog for the title in October while Hart had also just won the title from Ric Flair in October. This was Hart's first run with the belt. Since they were going so long, they started off slow with a lot of rest holds. The slow pace early, allowed them to build to a more dramatic finish. After some great action with plenty of false finishes, Hart locked Michaels in the Sharpshooter and Michaels submitted in a very good match. *** ½

Summary: This wasn't a bad show, but there wasn't anything special about the PPV either. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels was easily the best match of the evening with the Razor Ramon/Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage/Curt Hennig match a close second. Watch it if you want to see those two matches and forward through everything else.

He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)

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